Bon Jovi; Jon Bon Jovi takes a trip down Jernee Mill Road

Another Article on Thursday nights SNOW... I mean SHOW.  Lots of pictures at the bottom.  Randomly the song is not called HELP!  That's a completely different Beatles song, it's called A Little Help from My Friends, just like its not Sugar Pie Honey Bunch it's I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch).  Like when people call You Give Love a Bad Name Shot Through the Heart, Shot Through the Heart is off Bon Jovi, You Give Love a Bad Name is off Slippery When Wet.  Get your song titles right or go home.

Jon Bon Jovi takes a trip down Jernee Mill Road

Written by

CHIRS JORDAN

SAYREVILLE — Jon Bon Jovi has been to 570 Jernee Mill Road in Sayreville before.

"We used to come down here to rehearse,'' said Bon Jovi to the sold-out crowd at 570 Jernee Mill, which is now the Starland Ballroom, on Thursday night. The venue hosted the Jon Bon Jovi and Friends benefit concert. "My wife Dorothea was the coat check girl here.''

Past incarnations of 570 Jernee Mill include the Hunka Bunka Ballroom and the Jernee Mill Inn. Former Bon Jovi bassist Alec John Such used to work at the Jernee Mill Inn, and an early Bon Jovi band, Jon Bon Jovi and the Wild Ones, played the room.

"We shot the video for "Only Lonely' here in 1985,'' said Bon Jovi Thursday night before breaking into his hit "Who Says You Can't Go Home.''

Thursday's show, which raised about $500,000 for the Parker Family Health Center in Red Bank, recalled Bon Jovi's bar band days with a loose, fun atmosphere. You couldn't help but smile when Bon Jovi looked bemused at Southside Johnny, on harmonica, and Bobby Bandiera, on guitar, riffing like the two old bandmates they are on "Treat Her Right.'' Yet, the evening did have an underpinning of seriousness, befitting the cause.

Bon Jovi's friends? Including Southside and Bandiera, Richie Rosenberg, Ray Andersen, Bob Burger, Graham Maby, Layonne Holmes, Jim Celestino, Maureen McCrink, Lisa Bouchelle, Ricky Collins, Rich Scannella, Tommy LaBella, Doug DeHays, John Berry, Joe Bellia, Mike Mancini, Arne Wendt and Tommy Meares and maybe one or two that we missed joined Bon Jovi onstage for rock 'n' roll chestnuts and R&B classics.

Here's the setlist:

"Help,'' 

"So You Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star,'' 

"C.C. Rider,'' 

"Glad All Over,'' 

"I Can't Help Myself,'' 

"Pretty Woman,'' 

"Blue Bayou,'' 

"Lonely,'' 

"Nothin' But a Party,'' 

"Hold On I'm Coming,'' 

"Start Me Up,'' 

"She's Not There,'' 

"Ooh Child,'' 

"Somebody to Love," 

"Build Me Up Buttercup,'' 

"Midnight Confessions,'' 

"Wanted Dead or Alive,''

"We Weren't Born to Follow,'' 

"You Give Love a Bad Name,'' 

"Who Says You Can't Go Home.''

Encore: 

"Livin' on a Prayer',' 

"Treat Her Right,'' 

"634-5789.''